So the kids kept seeing ads for this film. IF is basically a family film where a little girl named Bea( who is 10 years old) and Ryan Renolds can see imaginary friends, hence the title IF. It's a short but sweet film that really works well and has a nice twist to it. My kids thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you have Paramount+, or what used to be called CBS all access, then I would highly recommend it as a good family film packed with stars. Speaking of stars, I would give this film a solid four out of five stars.
Heavy Spoiler review! Do not read if you want to watch this film.
Overall, its a great family film, and worth watching at least once, if not twice once you catch on to the twist.
Heavy Spoiler review! Do not read if you want to watch this film.
The general plot of the film is that it starts out with flashbacks in the girl's paternal grandmother's walk-up apartment in NYC. This is during the summer a few years before the main part of the film. Her parents are both there and having fun with her, dancing, going to the amusement park, but her mother is having to have extended treatments in the hospital. The movie then flashes forward a few years, and the Grandmother is taking Bea back to her grandmother's walk-up apartment in NYC, and Bea is now 10 years old. Bea's mother has passed away between the flashback and the start of the film proper, and her dad, who is played by John Krasinski, is having to have heart surgery in NYC, so Bea is staying with her Grandmother again. However, one night after leaving to go to a local corner store for a camera charger cord, Bea spots this little girl IF creature, and follows it to a room in the top of their apartment building. Ryan Renolds tells Bea through the door that there is no little girl there and to go away. The next night Bea follows them to a nearby house where they try to get a giant IF named Blue, voiced by Steve Carrell, out of a kids house. This was part of a plan that they were trying to find new kids for IFs whose kids have grown up and can't see them anymore. Bea is surprised by the little girl IF again and passes out, and Bea wakes up inside the top room in her apartment building where we find out that Calvin, played by Ryan Renolds, has been trying to rehome IFs.
The next day Calvin takes her to the amusement park, that leads to a sort of Nursing home for IFs that have lost their kids. She meets a lot of interesting IFs, including a one named Keith that is invisible even to Bea and the other IFs, that is constantly tripping Calvin. The IF in charge is a giant teddy bear played by the late Louis Gossett Jr, who teaches Bea that with her imagination she can change the place to make it better for everyone. He mentions that Calvin used to be happy, and even worked as a clown. After Bea changes the entire place with her imagination, they set down to interview IFs to match to new kids, specifically they are trying for this one kid that Bea meet in the hospital when visiting her dad. Unfortunately, that does not work out as none of the IFs can be seen by the kid.
So now, they go on a mission to try to find the IFs original kids that are now grown up and try to get them to see them again. This results in some hijinks with Blue, but eventually he is able to reconnect to his now grown-up kid and help him settle down before a big presentation. Bea discovers that the little girl IF is actually her grandmother's IF, and gets them to reconnect through playing their old ballet dancing music. I should mention that they reconnect but don't see the IFs.
Then the day of the heart surgery comes, and things aren't great. Grandmother takes Bea to see her dad, who is still not awake from his surgery. All the IFs are lining the hallways in the hospital. Bea tells her dad about the fact that people treat her like a grown up, but she is still a little kid, still needs him, and can't say goodbye. He wakes up and they have a warm embrace. When she leaves the hospital room, all the IFs are gone.
She tries to go up and see Calvin again but the room is just a storage room with no one living there. Bea no longer sees any of the other IFs and eventually moves all of her stuff, including the things from when she was a little girl, out of her grandmother's house and into the back of her dad's car. In the process of that Bea drops an old box that had a picture she drew of her family at the amusement park. The picture shows her, her dad, her mom, and when she unfolds the paper there is Calvin the clown. Bea runs back inside the apartment building right past her grandmother who was coming to say goodbye. Goes right to the storage room at the top, and opens it to see Calvin there in his clown outfit as he was her forgotten IF. After a sad goodbye, we see them drive away from a waving grandmother, who then turns to her little girl IF for the first time of the film and says, "shall we go back inside?" Realizing she can see her now, the IF smiles. We have nice montage of all the other IFs being reunited with their former kids that grew up, including when we get back home with Bea and her dad, who trips over his invisible imaginary friend, Keith.
The next day Calvin takes her to the amusement park, that leads to a sort of Nursing home for IFs that have lost their kids. She meets a lot of interesting IFs, including a one named Keith that is invisible even to Bea and the other IFs, that is constantly tripping Calvin. The IF in charge is a giant teddy bear played by the late Louis Gossett Jr, who teaches Bea that with her imagination she can change the place to make it better for everyone. He mentions that Calvin used to be happy, and even worked as a clown. After Bea changes the entire place with her imagination, they set down to interview IFs to match to new kids, specifically they are trying for this one kid that Bea meet in the hospital when visiting her dad. Unfortunately, that does not work out as none of the IFs can be seen by the kid.
So now, they go on a mission to try to find the IFs original kids that are now grown up and try to get them to see them again. This results in some hijinks with Blue, but eventually he is able to reconnect to his now grown-up kid and help him settle down before a big presentation. Bea discovers that the little girl IF is actually her grandmother's IF, and gets them to reconnect through playing their old ballet dancing music. I should mention that they reconnect but don't see the IFs.
Then the day of the heart surgery comes, and things aren't great. Grandmother takes Bea to see her dad, who is still not awake from his surgery. All the IFs are lining the hallways in the hospital. Bea tells her dad about the fact that people treat her like a grown up, but she is still a little kid, still needs him, and can't say goodbye. He wakes up and they have a warm embrace. When she leaves the hospital room, all the IFs are gone.
She tries to go up and see Calvin again but the room is just a storage room with no one living there. Bea no longer sees any of the other IFs and eventually moves all of her stuff, including the things from when she was a little girl, out of her grandmother's house and into the back of her dad's car. In the process of that Bea drops an old box that had a picture she drew of her family at the amusement park. The picture shows her, her dad, her mom, and when she unfolds the paper there is Calvin the clown. Bea runs back inside the apartment building right past her grandmother who was coming to say goodbye. Goes right to the storage room at the top, and opens it to see Calvin there in his clown outfit as he was her forgotten IF. After a sad goodbye, we see them drive away from a waving grandmother, who then turns to her little girl IF for the first time of the film and says, "shall we go back inside?" Realizing she can see her now, the IF smiles. We have nice montage of all the other IFs being reunited with their former kids that grew up, including when we get back home with Bea and her dad, who trips over his invisible imaginary friend, Keith.
Overall, its a great family film, and worth watching at least once, if not twice once you catch on to the twist.
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